BPRD Universal Machine #5

The final issue of The Universal Machine storyline wins the pick of the week title. 

 Kate Corrigan escapes imprisonment by outsmarting her captor and Johann communicates with Roger in the netherworld.

Mike Mignola cover?  Check!

Exciting story?  Check!

Demons taking revenge?  Check!

Mike Mignola making a surprise appearance and drawing the last five pages in which Johann contacts Roger’s spirit and Roger expresses his final wish to remain dead?  Check as FUUUUUUUCK!

I gasped when I turned the page and found myself transported to another dimension because of the surprise artwork.  Pick of the week!

Roger: I…. I know I’m not a man.  Do you think it’s possible that you could bury what’s left of me in the earth – like a man?

Hellboy Vol 6: Strange Places by Mike Mignola

My last post was about a BPRD comic and I mentioned that people should pick up the Hellboy/BPRD trades.  And even though you should read them in order, and even though Conqueror Worm is my favorite (vol. 5), I’m writing about the most recent release. 

Mike Mignola is by far my most favorite comic book artist.  Everything he draws is a potential painting/tattoo/album cover.  I’m in love with his art, it takes me so long to get through a comic because I savor every panel. 

This trade collects The Third Wish and The Island, both released after the movie (if you liked the movie, you’ll love the comic).  In Third Wish, Hellboy is soul searching in Africa after quitting the BPRD, he meets a witch doctor, talking lions, and mermaids.  It’s a morality tale with an ending that tugs at the heart strings.  The dialogue exchange between HB and the Bog Roosh (a sea witch) is hilarious.  In The Island two years have passed and HB finds himself drinking with ghost sailors.  But it wouldn’t be a Hellboy comic if he didn’t end up beating on a giant monster with his famous right hand; his right hand is the focus of this death/resurrection tale as we finally learn it’s true origin.  Mignola also throws in the creation of the world, the rise and fall of angels and the origin of man.  Heavy stuff. 

 This trade features a new epilogue which caps the whole story nicely.  Hellboy has everything that makes me Believe In Comics.

B.P.R.D. The Universal Machine #4 by Mignola, Arcudi, Davis

Talking werewolves!! Can I get a fuck YEAH!? The pick of the week award goes to this comic, for this and a few other reasons.

Another one being the awesome Mike Mignola cover, (hands down my favorite comic book artist). This issue is a detour from universal machines plot, but it works. It contains a nightmarish ghost story from Liz where we delve into her tragic past, and another story told by Abe, where he and Hellboy encounter a wendigo, (a cursed ghost only found in Canada). Instead of engaging in a run of the mill fight, the three talk. The dialogue from the wendigo, who actually used to be a man as he tried to cope with the lost of his family and his humanity is pretty fucking heart breaking.

Then you remember the talking werewolves and everything is all better. If you only know of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. through the movie then I’d definately reccomend picking up any of the trades. Even though the movie is cool it can’t hold a candle to the comics.

P.S. Comics.